Veteran Democrat Mike Jones – who has played significant roles in St. Louis and St. Louis County government – joins Politically Speaking to offer his take on how best for Democrats to regroup after their generally poor showing in the November elections.

Jones also talks policy, particularly in his current role as a member of the state Board of Education.

Jones began his political career more than three decades ago as a St. Louis alderman in the city’s 21st Ward. Since then, he’s become a go-to person for state, city and county officials.

Most recently, he’s been tapped as a consultant in the city’s deliberations of whether to privatize St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

During the podcast, his observations included:

Missouri Democrats have to do a better job of communicating to the public what they stand for. Republicans have successfully rebranded Democrats as out of touch, he said. “Now it’s a label that people use not to be a Republican,’’ he said.

Jones agrees that Democrats have a problem with older, rural voters, but he argues that the party may have better luck elsewhere. “The biggest political party in America is independents and nonvoters.”

The newly reconstituted state Board of Education’s decision to re-hire Margie Vandeven as commissioner reflected her stellar qualifications and performance, he said.

Jones praised the GOP-controlled state Senate for its decision to block then-Gov. Eric Greitens’ board appointees, who Greitens charged with firing Vandeven as part of his effort to overhaul public education in the state. The Senate and current Gov. Mike Parson have helped the state Board of Education regain its legitimacy, Jones said.

As a board member, Jones said he’s seeing first-hand that “there are issues’’ — notably transportation needs — where an urban black Democrat and a white rural Republican can agree.

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Mike Jones remembers being “shocked but not surprised” when he heard that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been murdered.

The assassination of the civil rights leader occurred a half-century ago this week in Memphis, Tennessee, when Jones was a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

“The forces in America that have been against black progress have always taken black lives,” Jones said during a St. Louis on the Air conversation marking the 50-year anniversary of King’s death. “Black lives have always had less value in America. And men and women who actually fight for that kind of change usually do not live to be old men or old women, so no, you wouldn’t be surprised.”

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 19, 2011 - Mike Jones, chairman of the region's China Hub Commission, says the effort to persuade China to locate a cargo hub at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport remains alive despite the General Assembly's failure to pass related tax incentives.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Aug. 15, 2011 - JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- As proposed changes in the way Missouri rates its school districts head toward a crucial vote by the state school board Tuesday, discussion on Monday centered on a controversial aspect of the rule -- testing.

The specific issues: How many tests should students take? How much should they count? What subjects should they cover?